Suchergebnisse

A study of the effect of EU membership on Central and Eastern European environmental policy and the interplay of political incentives and industry behavior that determines policy In Transnational Politics of the Environment, Liliana Andonova examines the effect of the Europen Union (EU) on the environmental policies of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, and Poland. Compliance with EU environmental regulations is especially onerous for Central and Eastern European countries because of the costs involved and the legacy of pollution from communist-era industries. But Andonova argues that EU integration has a positive impact on environmental policies in these countries by exerting a strong influence on the environmental interests of regulated industries. With her empirical study of chemical safety and air pollution policies from 1990 to 2000, she shows that export-competitive industries such as the chemical industry that would benefit from economic integration have an incentive to adopt EU norms. By contrast, industries such as electric utilities that primarily serve the domestic market remain opposed to EU environmental standards and must be prodded by their own governments to implement environmental-protection measures. These differences in domestic interests greatly influence the course of reforms and the adoption of EU standards.Transnational Politics of the Environment challenges the current focus on intergovernmental cooperation between East and West by highlighting the roles of industries, transnational norms, and domestic institutions in promoting change in environmental regulation. It offers a generalizable framework for understanding the politics of environmental regulation in emerging market economies, and helps bridge the divide between the study of domestic and international environmental politics.

The Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers of Central Asia flow across deserts to empty into the Aral Sea. Under Soviet rule, so much water was diverted from the rivers for agricultural purposes that salinity levels rapidly rose and the sea shrank. There was an upsurge in dust storms containing toxic salt residue, and a new desert began to replace the sea. At the same time, agricultural runoff rendered the drinking water unfit for human consumption.In this book Erika Weinthal examines how the Central Asian states of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan have tackled the Aral Sea Basin crisis since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The Amu Darya now flows through three new nation-states, and the Syr Darya through four. This shakeup of political borders created a collective-action problem for the successor states. While they needed to consolidate domestic sovereignty, they also needed to relinquish sovereignty over their water resources in order to develop a joint solution to the desiccation of the Aral Sea. Weinthal examines why they were able to cooperate over their shared water resources. She emphasizes the roles of nonstate actors (international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and bilateral aid organizations) in the building of institutions for regional cooperation and for state formation, shows how cooperation was nested within the state-building process when international third-party actors were involved, and highlights the dispensing of side payments (financial and material resources) by nonstate actors to aid both regional cooperation and state formation.

Governments' desire to ameliorate environmental problems may conflict with other goals. Policy levels which balance different objectives can be altered by policy changes in other countries. A decrease in the importance of the pollution problem, or an increase in its global extent, increase the likelihood that tighter environmental regulations in one region induce laxer policies elsewhere. The transboundary character and the importance of environmental externalities also affect the amount of cooperation needed to improve members' welfare in a coalition. More global pollution problems require a larger coalition. However, the critical coalition size may be larger or smaller for more severe problems.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and Acronyms -- Introduction -- Opening Remarks -- PART ONE The Globalization of Environmental Problems -- 1 Europe and the Atlantic Community in the Context of an Ecological World Order -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Lost Battle: Is There a Future? -- 3. The Orderly Retreat: What Is Necessary? -- 4. Marignano Utopos: What Are Our Chances? -- 5. Epilogue -- 2 The State of the Global Environment: Is There a Need for an "Orderly Retreat"? -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Major Stresses on the Global Ecological System -- 3. Is There a Need for "An Orderly Retreat"? -- 4. What Can Be Done? -- References -- 3 Global Cooperation for Sustainable Development -- Challenges to the North on the Road from Rio -- 1. Introduction -- 2. From "The Rio Spirit" to a New North-South Relationship -- 3. Integration of Environment and Development -- 4. Challenges to the Political Reality in the North -- 5. Conclusions -- PART TWO Economic and Institutional Capacities for International Environmental Cooperation -- 4 Affluence and Scarceness: The Effect of Economic and Sociocultural Capacities on Environmental Cooperation -- 1. Disaster Paradox and Capacity for Action -- 2. Ecology of Affluence - Ecology of Scarceness -- 3. Conclusions -- Further Literature -- 5 Economic and Institutional Capacities for Environmental Cooperation (Some Remarks on Volker von Prittwitz) -- PART THREE International Negotiating Processes in the Environmental Field and Their Results -- 6 Specific Characteristics of Environmental Diplomacy -- 7 Critical Attributes of International Environmental Negotiations -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Anatomy of Negotiation -- 3. Characteristics of International Environmental Negotiations -- 4. Attributes of Environmental Negotiations: Critical Developments.

Der Artikel enthält eine Chronologie der Treffen von Vertretern Ungarns, Polens und der CSFR zur Beratung über Fragen der militärischen Zusammenarbeit und der Sicherheitspolitik vom April 1990 bis zum November 1991, informiert über die zwischen diesen Ländern abgeschlossenen bilateralen militärischen Kooperationsverträge und analysiert die Haltung der drei Länder zur NATO. Nicht zuletzt im Hinblick auf die Integrationsbestrebungen der oben genannten Länder in bezug auf die NATO ist man bemüht, die trilaterale militärische Kooperation nicht allzu sehr in den Blickpunkt der Öffentlichkeit zu rücken. (BIOst-Srt)